Yesterday, on the way home from a fabulous Lag BaOmer celebration at the Chabad Jewish Center, I asked my children to join me in prayer for a child that was in need of a medical recovery after a sporting accident. (Please keep Baruch Shmuel ben Chana in your prayers). One of my children asked aloud, “How does Tatty know about this so quickly if it’s not his friend and if happened today?”
“Don’t you know that it’s ‘going around’?” my daughter responded incredulously.
It’s going around…
Forwarding messages, emails and videos has become so commonplace today, it’s hard to track when and where things originate. But, they do develop a life of their own, traveling around the world at lightning speed.
On the positive side, it’s amazing and inspiring how quickly people mobilize to help in times of need.
A less inspiring consequence is the waste of time that so many viral videos and spam cause.
Both influences carry the power to change quickly and endlessly.
So, how do we sift through what’s useful versus useless?
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The name of this week’s parsha, Emor, is based on the opening words, which translate as:
Say to the kohanim, the sons of Aaron, and say to them.
It sounds redundant.
The Talmud teaches that the mandate herein was to tell the kohanim (priests) who, in turn, should tell their children. In other words, the message must continue to be relayed.
I’d like to focus however on the Torah’s choice of words. Usually, when G-d tells Moshe to instruct the Jewish people the Hebrew term used is דבר (daber), meaning “tell.” Here the Torah uses the term אמור (emor), meaning “say.”
You might assume that those are simply synonyms.
But, G-d’s instruction to the Jewish people at the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, tells a different story.
Here’s what Hashem told Moshe: So shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel.
Why the repetition and why the different words?
The Midrash explains that Moshe was instructed to speak with the women (House of Jacob) in a gentle language and to the men in a harsh tone.
The Hebrew term for saying represents a gentle expression while the term for telling is employed for more direct and tough dialogue.
Regarding most of the commandments in the Torah, G-d tells the Jewish people what to do. It’s black and white.
Here – when Hashem wants us to pass on the message to others – the language “say” is utilized. This means the message must be conveyed with compassion, love and devotion.
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When we are involved in “saying” things – delivering a message with kindness, affection and sincere concern for the other – that message should be repeated again and again.